FLORIDA (USA): ERIC SCOTT BRANCH EXECUTED

Eric Scott Branch (47, White) was executed. Branch was Sentenced to death on May 3, 1994 in Escambia County after being convicted of strangling and raping Susan Morris on Jan. 11, 1993.
Branch also raped and beat a 14-year-old girl in Indiana and raped a woman in Florida 10 days before killing Morris. The jury recommended a death sentence with a vote of 10-2.
Branch attempted to have his death sentence vacated last year in a retroactive application of a new Florida law that now mandates a jury unanimously recommend the death sentence. His appeals were denied because the new law applies only to sentences issued that became final after 2002. Branch becomes the 1st inmate executed this year in Florida, the 96th person executed in Florida since the state resumed executions in 1979, the 4th of this year in the US, and the 1469th person executed in the United States since the state resumed executions in 1977.